Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King

Chapter 829 - 560: Born for Competition (Part 2)

The engineering guy Yu Dong did indeed report the lab’s work to Zhang Yang every week, but Zhang Yang is the classic "trust the people you use, don’t use the people you doubt" type. He only glanced at his inbox once in a while; most of the time he just completely let things run on their own.

Zhang Yang scratched his head awkwardly. "Hehehe, come on, with the way we’re bros, you just make the call. Do I still need to be that uptight? I just take a look every now and then. Been a lot of comps lately, so I didn’t read them!"

"Alright then, I’ll roughly go over it! For the first-gen flagship additives, the lab has basically done a certain level of formula upgrades across the board, and the testing work is basically done. From the quantitative data, overall performance is up by about 15%.

Right now there are three projects still in the exploration phase.

One is low-temperature fermented Rice for Making Wine, one is a practical study on pollen-based fish-attracting, and the third is this cricket paste bacterial fermentation!

The first two projects are basically still stuck at the testing stage. We haven’t found the right direction yet, and it’s probably hard to get any results in the short term!"

"Then don’t hesitate. Put the first two projects on hold for now and shift the main focus of the research to the third project!

Preliminary target is: try to figure out the internal mechanisms and core appetizing substances in the second half of this year, and after spring starts next year, we’ll roll out a product for the spring expo!" Zhang Yang swung his arm in a big gesture and made the decision on the spot.

"Uh... mass production won’t be that fast, you know? There’s still a lot of stuff we don’t have figured out yet!" When Yu Dong heard Zhang Yang’s plan, he got a bit flustered. He pushed up his black-framed glasses; he was one line away from saying, "Your concubine really can’t do this."

"Just try as much as possible first. If it really can’t be done, we’ll treat it as a non-sale item and hang it under the regular ordering and sales mechanism for distributors!"

"Got it! Try to make a bit more, yeah? I’ll have Wang Yan and the guys test how it works in wild pits! Still any stock left in the insulated box?"

"Nope. Culturing on Petri dishes and then extracting through various processes is really hard, and the failure rate is very high. Once the bacteria community gets out of control, the extract is trash. This little bottle here is the result of the last four days."

It had taken four days to produce not even ten milliliters. Zhang Yang instantly regretted how much he’d added into the bait earlier. This stuff was way too damn precious.

"Alright, got it! I’m free the next couple of days; I’ll help you collect all kinds of test data! You keep working hard here. If there’s any breakthrough, call me anytime!"

"Deal. If there’s nothing else, you can go now. I’ve got to start the next round of experiments. If something comes up I’ll call you!"

Once the serious talk was done, Yu Dong couldn’t care less about Zhang Yang’s face. He got up from his seat, waved his hand, and basically kicked Zhang Yang out.

Among all the departments and employees in the company, probably only Yu Dong had the guts and the clout to give Zhang Yang the boot like that—and Zhang Yang wasn’t the slightest bit annoyed.

Leaving the lab, the sky was already getting dark. Zhang Yang slipped that tiny bottle of new reagent into his pocket, got in the car, and headed straight for Xiao Wei’s place.

The big flat that Zhang Yang and Xiao Wei bought was already fully renovated. Xiao Wei had moved in, while Zhang Yang was running back and forth between his hometown and this place.

Right now, even though the two of them haven’t gotten the marriage certificate yet, their life is pretty much the same as if they were married.

Knowing that Zhang Yang had brought another championship back, Xiao Wei specially prepared a table full of dishes. The two of them set up a little ’victory banquet’ at home.

No need to dwell on the details of dinner. Zhang Yang had been out for several days; he was long sick of takeout and all that. Coming home to a loving wife at his side and a table full of good food felt downright heavenly.

The prize money from winning the competition had already put Zhang Yang in a good mood, and on top of that, Yu Dong had brought him absolute great news. With all that, Zhang Yang had a few extra drinks at dinner and got a bit tipsy.

With a slight buzz, Zhang Yang was in the middle of telling his wife about how he’d been showing off his skills outside, when Xiao Wei’s smile suddenly faded.

"Alright, I get the competition stuff now. Let me ask you something else."

Zhang Yang patted his chest. "Ask away. Whatever my wife wants to know, just ask. I’ll tell you everything, no holding back!"

"According to the intel I got, that fox named Sun Yi is into you. True or not?"

As Xiao Wei asked, her right thumb and index finger were already pinching the soft flesh at Zhang Yang’s waist.

Her nails against his oily skin sent a cold, slick sensation over to Zhang Yang. No need to say it—if his answer wasn’t satisfactory, it’d instantly turn into a spinning love-attack torture move.

"Fuck! Who the hell is spreading bullshit! There’s nothing between me and Sun Yi! If I’m lying, I’m a damn puppy!!" Zhang Yang sobered up in a second, shooting to his feet like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

"Really nothing?"

"Really nothing! In terms of looks, personality, ability—she’s not even on the same level as my wife, alright? You think I’m stupid?" Zhang Yang shook his head like a rattle drum.

"I’ll trust you this once. I can understand normal social interaction, but I won’t allow you to have any shady dealings with her in private! Got it?"

As she said this, Xiao Wei’s fingertips tightened slightly. Her nails dug into his oily skin, making Zhang Yang feel a stab of pain, then quickly released.

"Got it, got it. Whoever that bastard is running his mouth, he better hope I don’t catch him. If I do, I’ll bust his legs!" Zhang Yang didn’t dare act cocky at all, muttering curses under his breath about how he was going to get back at the gossip.

"It’s getting late. You’ve been out so many days, and it’s not easy for you to finally be back. Shouldn’t you first pay some ’public grain’ today? I’ll also take the chance to check if you’ve been messing around outside!"

"Wifey, don’t... ouch..."

...

18,633 words are omitted here.

Early the next morning, Zhang Yang’s long-ingrained biological clock woke him up on time.

Last night’s "exploitation" was too intense, and when he got up this morning Zhang Yang felt his legs a bit weak. He did a symbolic lap downstairs, bought Xiao Wei’s favorite fried buns for breakfast, and after they’d eaten their fill, the two left home together for work.

Xiao Wei’s job was livestream selling and shooting short skit material, while Zhang Yang had it a bit easier. The company didn’t require him to clock in, so after dropping his wife off at her company, he turned the car and headed back to the lab.

In the following days, Zhang Yang pretty much shuttled back and forth between the lab and home, and around lunchtime he would drive over to the club base for a look.

After this FTT tour event, the team members had rediscovered a new wave of passion for rod practice. Zhang Yang found time to give them some brief guidance, which also meant he wasn’t neglecting the post-match review and follow-up training for the club members.

Overall, Zhang Yang was quite satisfied with how the team performed on this FTT trip to Spring City, but the competition had also exposed a few issues. After continuous review, patching up weaknesses and carrying out follow-up intensive training is an effective way to boost real combat strength. Under Zhang Yang’s scientific training, the members’ technical level was steadily improving.

What’s especially worth mentioning is that, without finding any suspicious "mole" in the team, Zhang Yang didn’t leak anything about the new additive.

Back in Tianjin, someone had locked onto Zhang Yang and his crew, and to this day, the mastermind behind it still hadn’t been found. Zhang Yang couldn’t help but stay a bit on guard.

In the next half month or so, Zhang Yang and the whole team followed a very regular schedule, busy with their respective tasks.

The team members finished their intensive training focused on patching technical weaknesses, while on Zhang Yang’s side, he assisted Yu Dong in collecting as much data as possible on different dosages, time points, air pressure, temperature and so on. Just the statistical tables they made were bound into a thick volume.

Overall, all the hard work paid off to some extent. Through test fishing under different conditions, Zhang Yang gradually figured out the general performance of this new additive.

For regular waters with naïve fish, this extract additive wasn’t anything mind-blowingly strong. In actual comparisons, it wasn’t even as consistently effective as just adding barley–sweet potato syrup for fast fish-grabbing.

But once they hit poor-bite "steal-the-donkey" ponds, or Competition Ponds with endless recirculation, the new additive’s power became fierce.

Looking at the dense records of real-world results in the stats, Zhang Yang couldn’t help sighing. Damn, this thing’s effect is straight up born for competitive fishing!